Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Dinosaur Brains

It was the biggest predator ever to trod the Earth, with a ‘crocodile’
snout six feet long, full of large teeth. And it had webbed feet, like a giant
duck.

‘It’ is
Spinosaurus, the only known dinosaur to, apparently, live much of its life in
the water. A fifty foot long predator that looks like it was put together by
committee. It was unveiled by scientists this pastThursday in Washington, D.C. (This actually
reminds me of a classic ‘Monty Python’ sketch in which the archeologists were
putting the final touches on an upright dinosaur skeleton in a museum. The
announcer intones “scientists now know the
animal looked very much like this!”
as they placed a large human thumb on its ‘face’ to complete the skeleton). Scientists
say the beast was known to them before, but that the bones from a long-ago
fossil discovery were destroyed in Germany during World War II.

They
say the new skeleton found in Morocco reveals the beast was far more aquatic thanoriginally
thought. Spinosaurus had a long neck, strong clawed forearms, powerful jaws
and the dense bones of…a penguin, according to a new study released by the journal
Science. It sported a 7 foot tall spiny ‘sail’ on its back and lived 95 million
years ago. It propelled itself through the water with flat feet that were probably webbed according to the study.
Study lead author Nizar Ibrahim said “it’s like working on an extraterrestrial
or an alien. It’s so different than anything else around.” He was standing in
front of a room-sized reconstruction of the skeleton at the National Geographic
Society, which partially funded the research. ( I have been assured there were
no human thumbs anywhere in sight).

Ibrahim
went on to say that the creature was “so bizarre it’s going to force dinosaur experts
torethink many things they thought they knew about dinosaurs.”
Until now, scientists had thought that all dinosaurs stuck to the land with
only the occasional, brief trip to water. But the new skeleton exhibits clear
evidence of aquatic living, including nostrils positioned high on the skull,
allowing the beast to be mostly submerged for extended periods of time. Study
co-author Paul Sereno called it “an evolutionary experiment going into the
water.”Spinosaurus grew 9 feet longer than Tyrannosaurus Rex and feasted on
aquatic creatures the size of cars in an area that was history’s “most
dangerous place” Ibrahim said.Three
giant predators roamed the land, and 25-foot long sharks, giant sawfish and
various types of ‘nasty’ crocodiles lurked in the water. Even the sky had giant
predators.

And I had thought history’s most dangerous
place wasany particular golf course on
whichGerald Ford was playing. And we
are currently being told- and told, and told, and told- that all of planet
Earth is now history’s most dangerous place due to global cooling, warming
climate change.

An
article by Seth Borenstein in the Associated Press (Friday, September 12)
quoted University of Maryland dinosaur expert Thomas Holtz, Jr. as stating “The
new find is amazing and convincing, showing
how wrong scientists have been about this dinosaur and about how diverse dinosaurs can be.”

In
other words we may have gotten most everything wrong in the past, been deluded
for decades, but we’re certain that now
all our beliefs and assumptions are unquestionably spot-on!

Truth
be told, I respect that these
scientists are apparentlyopen-minded
and willing to change their established beliefsandto question the conventional
wisdom whenever new evidence comes to light.

Daily Trivia Quiz Answer

Today's Answer: Andrew Jackson. ("Poll" got so worked up before the service he apparently had to be removed from the premises, as he was cussing long and loud).

Q) What words appear on the front of the penny, nickel, dime and quarter, alongside the likeness of presidents?

A) "Liberty" and "In God We Trust"

An Ode To Life

Appreciate all you have, as it- and you- will soon be gone. Leave no heartfelt words unspoken, no sweet gesture incomplete, no act of love undone. Love your spouse with passion and abandon, your kids with patience and understanding but also a firm guidance. Love also the truth, no matter how hard. If pursued by enough people with enough courage, it really will set us free.

And don't forget, we didn't ask to be born. We didn't create ourselves. We are not gods. There is a higher power.

Fireworks of the Mind

Write It Up

Whence Shall Come Another?

True Then, True Now

"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."- Winston Churchill

Time Well Wasted

The power lies within your hands To do with what you may But the hourglass is filled with sands Of endless yesterdays